Woolies play role of giant killer

Thursday

Mar 11, 2010 at 6:00 AMMar 11, 2010 at 8:57 AM

By Jim Wilson TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

After winning four straight Central Mass. Division 2 titles and playing in the past two state championships, it's hard to consider the Millbury High girls' basketball team an underdog. However, that's how the Woolies felt heading into last night's state semifinal against undefeated Palmer.

And that's all the motivation Millbury needed.

The Woolies rocked the Panthers — winners of 23 straight — with a stifling defense, holding Palmer without a bucket for nearly 10 minutes of the second half in a 49-29 victory at the MassMutual Center. Millbury got 22 points and 13 rebounds from junior Julie Frankian.

Millbury (20-4) plays Oliver Ames (24-1) in the state final at 2:15 p.m. Saturday at the DCU Center in Worcester. The Woolies try for their first win in three straight trips to the title game.

“We came in as the underdogs again and we just proved everyone wrong,” senior Chelsea Perkins said. “We proved we're in it to win it and we're Millbury basketball and we're here to go hard or go home.”

Millbury started in a man defense, but fell behind by six early in the first quarter. The Woolies shifted to a zone the rest of the way and cut the deficit to 11-6 after the first quarter. The defensive switch paid bigger dividends in the second.

“In the first quarter, we were a little sluggish and not playing how we usually play,” Frankian said. “We said, ‘All right, guys, we can do this, we're not down by much' and we just stepped up our game and played Woolie basketball.”

“We were a little intimidated,” coach Steve Reno said about facing undefeated Palmer. “The one thing we were excited about was we thought we matched up size-wise. … We still felt like we were going to have to play the game of our lives, and I think we did that.”

Millbury used an 11-0 run to take a 19-13 lead in the second quarter. Frankian had eight points and two rebounds in that span, while Perkins (16 points) added a 3-pointer and a jumper. The Woolies outscored the Panthers, 13-5, in the quarter and took a 21-16 lead into the locker room.

Frankian called the Woolies' zone defense a “team secret” and jokingly declined to divulge further information on the swarming attack employed to rattle Palmer's shooters.

“It's the Millbury defense, it confuses people. It's a very good defense,” Frankian said. “We call it Five. … It's really been helping us out a lot the past couple games.”

Frankian quoted Reno's adage that “defense turns into offense” as the Woolies forced Palmer (23-1) to take more outside shots in the second half after the path for layups was clogged. Palmer, which Millbury beat in the 2008 state semifinal, scored just four points in the fourth quarter and was held without a field goal from 2:46 of the third quarter until Halie Laviolette hit a 3-pointer with 1:27 left in the game. That cut the lead to 47-29.

“We knew all their plays. They were trying to throw six different plays at us every switch of the ball,” Perkins said. “We knew all their players and what type of players they were and we were just mentally and physically prepared for this game and it showed.”

Now the Woolies head to another state final, hoping the third time is the charm — especially since last year's 36-33 loss to Notre Dame-Hingham still haunts them.

“The beginning of tryouts this year, I could still feel it — that's how bad it hurts,” Frankian said. “It just makes us work so much harder and I think because we've been there two years in a row and we've lost, that just makes us work that much harder.”